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Nettskybruk i organisasjoner

Rania Fahim El-Gazzar disputerer med avhandlingen «Understanding Cloud Computing Adoption within Organizations» den 1. juni 2016.

- How can we understand the phenomenon of CC adoption within organizations?

Rania Fahim El-Gazzar

Stipendiat ved Institutt for informasjonssystemer

Nettskyen får stadig økt betydning. I sin ph.d.-avhandling har Rania Fahim El-Gazzar studert hvordan nettskyen blir tatt i bruk i primært i forretningsorganisasjoner.

Rania Fahim El-Gazzar disputerer for ph.d.-graden med avhandlingen «Understanding Cloud Computing Adoption within Organizations» ved Institutt for informasjonssystemer.  I avhandlingen forsker hun på hvilke faktorer som spiller inn når en organisasjon - les bedrift - tar i bruk "Cloud Computing" - eller nettskyen, som vi sier på norsk.

To sentrale spørsmål blir stilt: Hvilke faktorer i institusjonen har betydning for hvordan nettskyen blir tatt i bruk i organisasjonen – og hvordan påvirker institusjonelle faktorer strategien for hvordan nettskyen blir tatt i bruk?

I avhandlingen har to case-studier gitt empiri: Ett fra Egypt og ett fra Norge, med i alt 46 informanter. Rania Fahim El-Gazzar har identifisert en rekke institusjonelle faktorer som påvirker hvordan nettskyen blir tatt i bruk. Interne faktorer som IT-struktur, bedrifttype og interne meningsdannere, og eksterne faktorer som lover og forskrifter, sky-tilbydere, media, sosio-politiske endringer og kulturelle holdninger er de viktigste.

Rania Fahim El-Gazzar har fulgt doktorgradsprogrammet ved Fakultet for samfunnsvitenskap med spesialisering i informasjonssystemer, og forskningen er finansiert med ordinært doktorgradsstipend.

Slik beskriver kandidaten selv essensen i avhandlingen:

Understanding Cloud Computing Adoption within Organizations

The aim of this PhD thesis is to understand the phenomenon of Cloud Computing (CC) adoption through the following main Research Question (RQ):

  • How can we understand the phenomenon of CC adoption within organizations?

This research question is addressed by exploring two Sub Questions (SQs) which, through different accounts, explain the importance of the institutional factors’ influence on CC adoption. These SQs are:

  • What are the institutional factors that affect CC adoption in organizations?
  • How do institutional factors shape CC adoption strategies?

Research methods

The research study in this thesis has provided results based on three research methods: (1) a systematic literature review; (2) two case studies, one from Egypt, and a second from Norway, and (3) a ranking-type Delphi study in which three different subpanels of experts were involved who represented various stakeholders (i.e., clients, providers, and academics). This research took place from September 2012 until March 2015.

The total number of informants was 46 who have contributed to the empirical studies in terms of interviews and/or Delphi surveys. The aim of the research approach used was to provide rich insights into understanding the CC adoption phenomenon through the shared experiences of the informants involved and their different views on the same phenomenon. In particular, I aimed to gather additional data related to the Egyptian and Norwegian contexts. By including the different views of informants from different contexts and domain backgrounds on the same phenomenon, this thesis was able to identify a breadth of institutional factors and CC adoption strategies.

Rania Fahim El-Gazzar har brukt informanter både fra Norge og hjemlandet Egypt i forskningen. (Foto: Privat)

Rania Fahim El-Gazzar har brukt informanter både fra Norge og hjemlandet Egypt i forskningen. (Foto: Privat)

Part of the data analysis was carried out by applying statistical methods to generate results from the narrowing-down and ranking surveys of the Delphi study. Furthermore, the inputs from the brainstorming questionnaire were coded to generate the consolidated list of CC adoption issues. The other part of the analysis was carried out using concepts from neo-institutional theory; these concepts are isomorphic pressures and strategic responses to institutional processes. The results generated from applying neo-institutional theory and statistical methods were triangulated to identify: (1) the external and internal institutional factors that influence, either by facilitating or hindering the adoption of CC services in organizations, and (2) CC adoption strategies.

Strongly influenced by Institutional factors

The findings from this thesis indicate that the CC adoption phenomenon can be understood through the external and internal institutional factors that have an important influence on CC adoption strategies.

These adoption strategies are shaped by the interplay of institutional factors. Hence, in this thesis, eight institutional factors have been identified, together with three CC adoption strategies that are shaped by these factors.

Five external factors have been identified that are related to the external social environment, both locally and globally (i.e., governments and regulatory bodies, cloud providers, media, socio-political changes, and culture).

Three internal factors have been identified that are related to the internal social and technical environment of organizations (i.e., internal stakeholders, firm characteristics, and IT infrastructure).

The importance of these factors identified from the Delphi rankings indicates that organizations are encouraged take them into consideration when adopting CC services. The identified strategies are: efficiency-motivated adoption, legitimacy-motivated adoption, and non-adoption. Furthermore, the findings from this study are compared with the research gaps that exist in the literature 

Thesis-contributions

This thesis offers contributions to: (1) the area of CC adoption by identifying external and internal institutional factors and CC adoption strategies through a mixed research approach of quantitative and qualitative methods. This has created a rich understanding of CC adoption phenomenon and (2) utilizing the neo-institutional theory to achieve a broader and richer understanding of the CC adoption phenomenon.

In addition, this thesis offers implications for practice. From the brainstorming phase of the Delphi study, a list of 55 identified issues has been generated to be of concern regarding the adoption of CC. These issues have been coded and grouped into 10 categories: (1) security, (2) availability, (3) migration, (4) business, (5) legal and ethical concerns, (6) culture, (7) awareness, (8) impact, (9) strategy, and (10) IT governance. These issues are suggested by the Delphi panelists as important for executives and managers in general to take into account when considering CC investments.

Practical implications

The practical implications of this study are aimed at clients, cloud providers, and law-makers.

Clients need to: (1) have a business case that is driven by business needs rather than IT costs, and (2) make a good estimation of the required change and communicate this with internal stakeholders in a convincing way.

Cloud providers need to: (1) be strategic in sensing the different demands of different markets, and reflecting these demands in their marketing campaigns, and (2) consider clients’ security requirements, which differ from the security already on offer.

Law-makers need to learn from the financial industry about how to build an ecosystem for the global exchange of data rather than money in the cloud; such an exchange must be based on trust and international governance practices.

Further research

This thesis also offers several opportunities for future research. In particular, it points to the benefits of a comparative analysis (e.g., countries and/or sectors) using a new theoretical lens such as management fashion. This would provide an insight into how cloud providers, consultants, governments, and academics perceive different market demands, and how they respond to these demands when promoting CC services 

This thesis also encourages IS researchers to: (1) explore factors that influence the adoption of particular service models (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS or public, private, and hybrid), and (2) conduct longitudinal studies on CC adoption, which can provide valuable implications on the entire CC adoption experience.

Last but not least, the results from the Delphi study indicate the need for further research on the various concerning CC adoption issues that were revealed among the panelists.

The contributions of this thesis are based on incorporating the empirical work published in five papers.

Rania Fahim El-Gazzar (Foto: Privat)

Rania Fahim El-Gazzar (Foto: Privat)

Disputasfakta:

Kandidaten: Rania Fahim El-Gazzar  born1984 in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.( - But my nationality and home country is Egypt and I live in Alexandria city, she underlines). BA and MA: Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT)  i Alexandria, Egypt.

Prøveforelesning og disputas finner sted i Gabriel Scotts auditorium B1-001, Campus Kristiansand

Instituttleder, professor Leif Skiftenes Flak leder disputasen.

Tid for prøveforelesning: Onsdag 1. juni 2016 kl 10:15

Oppgitt emne for prøveforelesning: "How secure is our Information in the Cloud?"

Tid for disputas:Onsdag 1. juni 2016 kl 12:00

Tittel på avhandling: «Understanding Cloud Computing Adoption within Organizations»

Søk etter avhandlingen i AURA - Agder University Research Archive, som er et digitalt arkiv for vitenskapelige artikler, avhandlinger og masteroppgaver fra ansatte og studenter ved Universitetet i Agder. AURA blir jevnlig oppdatert.

Opponenter:

Førsteopponent: Professor Tero Päivärinta, Luleå University of Technology

Annenopponent:Førsteamanuensis Karin Bernsmed, NTNU

Bedømmelseskomitéen er ledet av professor Maung Kyaw Sein, UiA

Veiledere i doktorgradsarbeidet var førsteamanuensis Eli Hustad, UiA og professor Dag Håkon Olsen, UiA